If you’ve read this blog for some time, you’ll know that I’m a big fan of shareware games. Specifically, I love shareware from the “golden age of PC shareware,” an era I just made up that roughly spanned 1988-1996.

And by “PC shareware,” in this case, I mean IBM PC compatible. I was not involved in shareware or BBS scenes for non-IBM computers, so I am not nearly as familiar with them.

With that in mind, take a gander at this new slideshow over at PC World in which I attempt to pick the The 12 Greatest PC Shareware Games of All Time. Whether I have succeeded or failed is not exactly the point, because as I always say, you can never objectively rank greatness. But even if you don’t agree with my picks, it should provide a fun journey down memory lane.

When you’re done reading it, I’d love to hear from you guys — what are your favorite shareware games of all time? Feel free to bring other platforms into it if you want.

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If you love shareware games, check out my 2009 interviews with the twin titans of PC shareware, Scott Miller of Apogee and Tim Sweeney of Epic MegaGames.

You really bought a PC because of Scorched Earth? That’s pretty amazing. I put it on my 10 Greatest MS-DOS Games of All Time list last year. I’ve spent more time playing Scorched Earth, a completely free title, than many games I’ve paid $50 for.

Jill of the Jungle was a strong contender, let me tell you, because it is close to my heart since I played it a lot back in the day.

However, I felt that Jill’s gameplay is a little awkward and creaky compared to other titles on the list, and its influence (while it was important at the time) wasn’t enough to raise its profile up the ranks. I highly recommend you play it again today, and you’ll see what I mean.

That being said, I still love Jill of the Jungle — I think it was the first Soundblaster/VGA shareware game I ever played, and that was amazing at the time. I talked to its author, Tim Sweeney of Epic Games, about it back in 2009.